KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 14 — Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad has reaffirmed that private hospitals are required to report patient falls and other serious incidents to the Ministry of Health (MOH).
In a recent High Court ruling on a medical negligence suit by a patient against Prince Court Medical Centre (PCMC) – following her 2018 fall from her hospital bed that left her in a persistent vegetative state – the court found that the private hospital breached a clear statutory duty under the Private Healthcare Facilities & Services Act 1998 (Act 586) to report the fall.
“I think we all know too well that incidents like this have to be reported,” Dzulkefly told reporters at the launch of the Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia (APHM) Factbook 2024 titled “Evolving Landscape of the Private Healthcare System: Contributions, Challenges, and Recommendations” at The Majestic Hotel yesterday.
“To be truly honest about this, I want Dr Kuljit [Singh] to explain this himself because it’s already mandatory that they have to report this.”
Dr Kuljit Singh, who is APHM president and medical director at Prince Court, responded: “I don’t represent PCMC today. I’m the president of APHM so I will stay in my position as the president. What I can only say is I understand that the hospital is in an appeals process, and we will come to the point after the due process is done.”
Lim Yoke Har fell from her bed in Prince Court on September 26, 2018, when she was admitted to the premier private hospital in Kuala Lumpur for dengue. The elderly woman, who was 75 at the time of the incident, was left in a persistent vegetative state for six years until her death last September.
CodeBlue reported Monday that the High Court has awarded the patient RM4.2 million in damages, including RM1 million in aggravated damages. This is the highest quantum of aggravated damages in a medical negligence suit since 2010, when another case then was also awarded RM1 million as aggravated damages.
In a detailed 101-page judgement, Judicial Commissioner (JC) Leong Wai Hong criticised PCMC for failing to report the fall to the MOH and for allegedly withholding critical incident reports from the court. The High Court concluded that Lim’s fall was caused by a malfunction of her old hospital bed.
Leong described the hospital’s actions as a “perversion of the course of justice”, citing the shifting of blame to the patient and her family, and the “deliberate non-disclosure of material evidence”, among others.
According to the JC’s ruling, private health care facilities are legally required to report incidents like this to the MOH within 24 hours, as mandated by Act 586.
Leong noted that PCMC’s failure to report Lim’s fall prevented the MOH from investigating, which could have provided evidence in the patient’s case. This was one of the JC’s justifications for awarding aggravated damages to Lim.
CodeBlue understands that the MOH will wait for the appeals process to conclude before taking any action, likely in the form of a fine, as premature intervention could interfere with ongoing legal proceedings.
The High Court took five years to come to its August 27 verdict on Lim’s suit that was filed in 2019. PCMC’s failure to report Lim’s fall to the MOH within 24 hours of the incident – as admitted by the hospital itself during the trial – is not the subject of litigation, but medical negligence.
